Hoopa appendix supporting summary judgment - Schlosser Law Files

The existing governing documents of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the governing
body established and elected thereunder, as heretofore recognized by the Secretary,
are hereby ratified and confirmed.
25 U.S.C. § 1300i-7. This provision responded directly to one of the court cases that led to
passage of the Settlement Act, Puzz v. Department ofInterior, No. C80-2908-TEH,
1988 WL 188462 (N.D. Cal. 1988), which held that because of the peculiar way the 1891
Reservation had been established, unless Congress acted to give tribes authority over the
Reservation lands, tribal governments lacked territorial management powers. Congress gave the
Hoopa Valley Tribe that authority in 25 U.S.C. § 1300i-7, which gave the force of federal law to
provisions of the Tribe’s constitution.
The Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Constitution was carefully identified in 25 U.S.C. § 1300i(b)(4),
and contains specific authorization to the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council to govern all lands within
the “Hoopa Valley Reservation.” Several provisions ofthe Tribe’s Constitution apply to nontribal
members on the Reservation and the Tribe’s 1988 claims waiver resolution (which the Bureau
approved and published) noted the Tribe’s need “to govern non-members.” In Bugenig v. Hoopa
Valley Tribe, No. C98-3409CW (U.S. D.C. N.D. Cal. 1999), Judge Wilken held § 8 of the Act
gave to every clause of the ratified Constitution the full force and effect of a congressional statute.
However, that holding is challenged in a pending appeal.
Upon division of the 1891 Reservation into a new Hoopa Valley Reservation and a Yurok
Reservation, the Hoopa Valley Tribe became the sole beneficial owner of the unallotted
(communal) land of its Reservation. 25 U.S.C. § 1300i-1(b). That provision changed the facts
that led the Fuzz court to hold that the Hoopa Valley Tribe lacked territorial management authority
over the 1891 Reservation. The result of § 2 of the Act was that non-Indians would own less than
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